White Lake Half - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

This beautiful lake must be the only reason that folks like this race. My goal was 35 min. Due to foggy goggles, swimming into the sun, not looking at a map of the course pre race, and not putting laps in the pool, I missed my goal. Only 2:14 but when you are trying to break 5 hrs and your plan in your head only gives you 2:30 seconds of leadway, the 2:14 may as well be an hour

I need a coach for my A race. I need some structure in my life

I figured 5 mins for T1, T2 and mistakes into my sub 5 goal. T1 was ok.

I always say Im going to practice transitions but I never do. I have a pretty good set up though

First 25 miles, steady rollin. I remembered from doing it the year before how after mile 25 it got effin brutal. For this reason, I backed off my pace and just tried to maintain 23 mph using less energy so I would have more for the hard road. This paid off because when I got to the hard road (you all know where Im talking about) I was able to maintain around 20avg. My goal time for the bike was 2:35:00 so coming in at over 3 min ahead of schedule lifted my spirits a bit. Even so, when I got off of the bike, my hammies cramped up immediately. For this I lost 2 oa spots in the bike when two people walked in front of me. I was able to walk it off in T2, My nutrition and hydration plan was the same as OBX 1/2 and I feel like I hit it spot on again.


Have my new bike Melody fit properly. Ive only ridden her in bike shorts other than Cary Du and she destroyed my package on this day

T2 I was worried about the hammies but stayed focused on what had to be done. Was good to have the Jet (Kenbert) yelling instructions for the run to me from outside the transition. Reminded me of the trainers in UFC yelling in the cage to the fighters. I took mental notes of his instructions, grabbed my race belt and was off.

I dont want to cramp coming off the bike. Time was good within reason of my overall goal

Man, brutal. Mile 1 i was actually holding a better pace than what Im used to on mile 1. I started feeling some tightness in the muscles over your knees and so I backed off to around a 745 pace. I had my plan to alternate water/salt and heed on each mile. I was able to hang sub 8 for the first 4 miles before I started slipping. I had a regular chrono timer watch on my left arm counting up towards 5 hrs and my garmin on the right so I could tell where I was pacing. Needless to say by my finish time, breaking 5 hrs was literally a sprint to finish. By the 6.5 turnaround I was dying running straight uphill in the desert (i thought) i started thinking about the guys that I passed who were on there way back and I would say "great job bro" and they would ignore me. I understand why now. I tried to at least lift a hand to encouraging people even though I was hurting. I was able to stick to my plan and push forward to each aid station for a new cold towel. I got through miles 7-10 by alternating singing Tool "pushit" and Snoop Dogg "lay low" in my head. At mile 10 I tried to make sense of numbers whether I was going to break 5hrs and I couldnt. At mile 11 I tried to make sense of the numbers again, of course it was too close to call. This is where I get a new triathlon experience. I suddenly had to pee but knew I would lose time in the porta jon. I had a half cup of water so yea I did it. The Rocket pissed himself and flushed with a half cup of ice water. It was great. I rounded the turn and with 1.1 I knew it was going to be a sprint to break 5. I gave everything I had left and felt like I lived by the words if you dont fall across the finish line then you didnt race hard enough. My son Jacob raced me across the finish line and won.

I just got to train better. Adjusted my run goal from 1:40:00 to 1:45:00 a week before the race because I knew it would be hot, considering all things my time wasnt too bad.

Lay in the lake the lovely lake and drink and eat


Undertrained, heat


All of the volunteers were great. I tried to thank as many as possible, I think most of the racers do, I hope that volunteers understand that at certain points in a race that pain and rudeness can be misinterpreted. Thanks to all involved.